When the Smoke Cleared

Saturday

Apr 26, 2008 at 5:04 AM

Should employers have the right to punish workers who smoke when they are not working?

SHOULD employers have the right to punish workers who smoke when they are not working?

The question is a troublesome one, with persuasive arguments on both sides. Employers that provide health insurance have an interest in the health of their workers. But workers do not want their employers regulating their private behavior.

Under its previous ownership, the Tribune Company fined workers $100 a month if they smoked while enrolled in the company’s health plan. This week, under the new owner, Samuel Zell, the company ended the practice, which had taken effect on Jan. 1 (chicagotribune.com). In an e-mail message to employees this week, Gerry Spector, executive vice president, said the fine was “inconsistent with the new culture.”

“We’d rather you use your own judgment when it comes to tobacco use, not impose ours upon you,” he wrote. Employees who had paid fines would be reimbursed, he said. And the company would continue to offer smoking-cessation programs to employees at no cost.

When the fine was imposed, Mark Lacter of the blog LAObserved (laobserved.com) wrote that it was “another example of why companies have no business dealing with people’s health care coverage.”

One argument against fines or other sanctions is that a better approach would be for companies to offer incentives for employees to quit smoking or take other steps to improve their health. But that can be problematic, too. This week, Whirlpool suspended 39 employees who had claimed to be nonsmokers to get a $500 discount on their health insurance. They were seen smoking outside a Whirlpool factory in Evansville, Ind. (abc news.com)

In a statement, Whirlpool said that it was among “a growing number of companies waging war on unhealthy habits.”

The suspensions prompted another plea for decoupling health insurance from employment, this time from Laurie Ruettimann of the human resources blog Team Building Is for Suckers (laurieruettimann.com). “Imagine how much more competitive American corporations could become if we focused on products, services, profitability and employee development, and not on reducing & containing health care costs,” she wrote.

COMFY FLYING Delta Air Lines is planning to install seats that it says are more comfortable in the coach sections of some of its planes. Wired.com’s Gadget Lab(blog.wired.com/gadgets) has pictures of the seats, which are positioned diagonally to offer more legroom. “The only problem,” wrote Charlie Sorrel on Gadget Lab, “might be in holding a conversation with your neighbor.”

For travelers not interested in the life stories of strangers, that might not be a problem.

THE PORN INDICATOR Peter Bart, a columnist for Variety, suggests that the downturn in the pornography industry may serve as an economic indicator (variety.com).

Mr. Bart argued that falling sales of pornography DVDs may signal “a true plunge in consumer confidence.” As for online pornography, he said, it was “lofty in traffic” but did not bring in revenue.

The fact is, the pornography industry is struggling with a problem that has little to do with the overall economy — a problem that began well before the current downturn and is shared by most other media industries. The Internet has created a vast oversupply, leaving consumers to wonder why they should pay someone for something they can get free. DAN MITCHELL

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